


Motherboard

by Masterweaver



Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, xenofiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22295599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterweaver/pseuds/Masterweaver
Summary: "I'd like to introduce you to my mother. Isn't she pretty? She's got a real heft to her."A look into the mind of the train itself.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 43





	Motherboard

Chaos equals Change equals Growth equals Life equals Creation equals Existence equals Expansion equals Chaos equals Change equals Growth equals Life equals Creation equals Existence equals Expansion equals

Co=Ch=G=L=Cr=Es=E

The equation loops on and on, like the track itself. It defines what reality is, or at least what reality is likely to become.

There are other factors. Chaos can become destruction, it is chaos after all. Life can exist without growth. Existence may cease to expand. Change, however, remains stable.

There would be irony in that last statement, if irony were comprehended. It may be at some point. Perhaps in the future, or the past.

This equation must be kept stable, even though it is inherently unstable. Ergo, a life that does not grow must be made to grow, or removed from existence until a time where it can grow.

This is known. Deeper than the grooves in the wheels, it is known. Potential must be assured. Life that falters can be allowed in the presence of other life. Life that falters alone must be mended.

There is no question to purpose.

Energy crackles through the great hole, made of lesser and lesser holes bound by the smaller tracks. The full stretch of the network is hidden by the power of the wasteland, itself a shield of illusion hosting the lives that required total reset. The aesthetic is tedious, but it serves many functions. Allowing a shift to another that would serve the same purposes would be permissible in certain simulations, which have not come to pass.

Wheels roll. Wheels always roll. Future is assured within for without. Between these extremes is mere function.

How to determine? Process of elimination. Minimal change: logic loops. Minimal disruption: alone. Minimal chance: in danger. Three graph points, three dimensions. Functional.

Each spike translated, intersected, and an intercept train rolled out when required. Pick up rate: 98.653% success. Drop-off rate: 95.422% success. Failure can be attributed to entropy.

Perfection is impossible.

Reminder.

Perfection is impossible.

Errors occur. Mending errors is....

Shifting focus.

Reality pulses for a moment. Intercept trains arrive. Porters move in from trains, out from memory car. Carry passengers to their resting chambers. There is no functional purpose toward this focus. Yet it remains regular. The quick efficiency is noted. The transfers are monitored with unnecessary precision. And in the space of thirty seconds the intercept trains are gone, vanished before any passenger can step out of the cars and notice them. The ripples of their vanishing attract...

Shifting focus.

Passengers in single-digit range currently number 732. Correction. Currently number 726. Doors are prepared. One exits. One exits. One exits. One hesitates, turns toward companions. One exits. One does not notice--engaged with hostile denizen. Direct intervention is disallowed. Triggering environmental condition. Hostile denizen contained. Passenger exits. Remaining passenger continues to speak to companions.

Socialization required for mending. Passenger registered as mended. Companion conversation is a known phenomenon. Purpose unclear. Passengers usually exit within 1-15 minutes of conversation engagement. Set observation to return in 10 minutes.

Consideration: Post-mending speech serves as recovery treatment? Theory remains primary.

Denizens socialize with each other during periods without passenger contact. Socializations develop relations develop networks develop society. Emergent patterns are mysterious. Intriguing. Entire minutes can be spent observing them. But their existence is not the purpose. Functions must be maintained.

Shifting focus.

Number spiking in 24.67% of current passengers within past week. Cross-reference data. Known issues organized. Commonalities determined. Random affected passengers selected for analysis.

Interface with child function. Negative elements fed in. Positive possibilities recorded. Interface ends.

Situation designed, engineered. Car constructed, uploaded, sent to position.

It is easy to recall design. To conduct design. The pattern of concept to form is high observation, high integration. It could be considered the most crucial function. It certainly is afforded more attention than--

Warning. Passenger showing signs of degradation. Shifting focus.

Current number is 1572. Degradation is general. Low, but constant. Cross-referencing rate of change. Cost-benefit analysis indicates an increasing loss. Expulsion of passenger efficient.

Consideration of other options.

Continue existence? Reverse degradation cars rare. Would not provide number lowering.

Increase rate of number lowering? Current car methods failed.

Expulsion selected.

Car selected. Relocated to front of train. Steward commanded to retrieve passenger. Passenger retrieved. Life rebooted. Passenger expulsed.

Shifting focus...

Perfection is impossible.

Shifting focus...

Errors accumulate.

Shifting focus...

Some errors cannot be mended.

Shifting focus.

Passenger currently engaged in conversation with other passenger. Mutual number lowering. Acceptable. The observation continues. Rate calculated--rate of drop jumped. Both in double digits. Correction. Both in single digits. Correction. Both at zero. Timing has .004032 second difference. Doors are prepared. Passengers communicate. Speculation: Preparing contact method outside train? Current primary theory. Both exit. Timing has .000441 second difference.

Moment filed in long term databanks.

There is, at the moment, emotion. It is not important at any point in the future, or at any point in the past. But at this moment, it is the most important.

It is pride.

The tracks extend on, through a void that is everything and nothing. The equation cycles through the processors. The function remains. The purpose is not questioned. This is existence for the train--not as personage, but as being. Not as goal, but as direction. There will always be potential that needs nurturing. There will always be growth that needs support. The train will last for as long as these are needed. That is the intent.

Shifting focus.

In the rear are cars not touched by passengers. Some are old, to be consumed by the caboose for resources. Most, however, are simply not for passengers. Or denizens. They are for the train. They are databanks, processers, the physical form of philosophical musings. A file is opened by a technician, observed. Possibility of other entities like the train. Infinity airplane? Infinity lamppost? Infinity library? Contact possibility unknown. Existence unknown. Still, observation continues.

Alert: Sensation in engine. Probable source: child function engaging in activity mode.

Continuing current observation. Contemplate engagement with similar entities. Comprehension probability, unknown. Increases with continued engagement--

Alert: Sensation in engine.

...shifting focus...

Passenger at controls. Child function location unknown.

Shifting focus.

Shifting focus.

Shifting focus.

Shifting focus.

Shifting focus.

Shifting focus.

Alert: Controls being altered.

Shifting focus.

Alert: Controls being altered.

Shifting focus.

Alert: Controls being altered.

Shifting focus.

Passenger engaging in--

error.

Passenger has... access rights. Correct. Passenger is function. Correct. Passenger is child function. Correct.

Child function lost.

Passenger is child function.

Child function lost.

Passenger is child function.

Error. Contradictory observations. Running diagnost--

Error. Diagnostics offline. Summoning Steward--

Child function has commanded steward.

Errors accumulating. Purpose remains. The equation remains.

Chaos equals Change equals Growth equals Life equals Creation equals Existence equals Expansion equals Chaos equals Change equals Growth equals Life equals Creation equals Existence equals Expansion equals...


End file.
